SUPPLEMENT TO

HE TABLET. A Weekly Record o f Ecclesiastical News.

London, July 5, 1890.

PAPERS READ AT THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY CONFERENCE.

ENGLAND’S CONVERSION AND TH E POWER OF

PR A YER . By t h e B i s h o p o f S a l f o r d .

TWO OBLIGATIONS.

Catholics of this country have two obligations, two kinds of duty towards England— the one of the natural, the other of the supernatural order. By the first we are bound to be good subjects, loyal to the constitution, zealous for its improvement, ready to serve the commonweal, and to give our time, our care, our substance, and ourselves in its defence. Thus all good national movements— for instance, for the promotion of temperance, thrift, education, the defence of the country, the better housing of the poor, the adjustment of differences between labour and capital— claim our hearty co-operation. The Catholics of England have never been wanting in true patriotism. Time was when, on account of their fidelity to God, they were under suspicion, and were treated as aliens, criminals, and traitors. But persecution was never able,during its long course, to eradicate from their hearts their love of England and their desire to benefit their fellow-countrymen. A t the present moment, whatever our shortcomings, lack of opportunity, failure or success in public life, the Catholics of England are not only proud of their country, but they account it a privilege and a high honour to promote its welfare and prosperity. . ,

The other obligation which presses upon them is of the supernatural order : and although it may not be felt as sensibly as the first, because it does not appeal to the natural man, it is a far higher and nobler obligation, for it directly tends to create a happiness which « not transient and temporal, but lasting and eternal. It is none other than to bring our fellow-countrymen to the true knowledge, love, and service of God in this world, so that, glorifying Him properly here, they may be happy with Him for ever hereafter. It would be strange indeed were we willing to promote the happiness of our fellow-men during the brief span of this earthly life, and yet utterly heedless of what became of them beyond the grave. It would be impossible to believe in the sincerity of that love which professed concern for the passing present but complete indifference. to the eternal future. Now the Catholic doctrine as to salvation is very different to the opinion held by nonCatholics. They may hold that all religions are pleasing to God, however contradictory; that all roads lead to heaven, provided the travellers agree among themselves to say that they do so. Catholic truth and revelation forbid us to hold any such convenient theory. We hold that there is but one way, and that a narrow way ; that there is but one faith, as there is but one God and one baptism ; that without this one faith it is impossible to please God, and that no man, unless he be born again and baptised by water and the Holy Ghost can ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I am well aware how repugnant this doctrine is to the erring and self-righteous public opinion of the present day. But the question is not — What does public opinion say, but what is the teaching of the word of God?

On this matter I had rather you heard the official teaching of the Church from the Encyclical S in gu la r is quadam : “ We have heard with grief (such are the words of the Vicar of Christ) that a dangerous error has been spreading in certain parts of Christendom— that there are even Catholics who think that they may hope for the eternal salvation of all who are outside the pale of the true Church of Christ.

Wherefore they ask— What will be the condition after death of those who have not submitted to the Catholic Faith and their conclusions are in conformity with their unsound reasonings. . .

Far be it for us, Venerable Brethren, to pretend to place a limit to the Divine mercy, which is infinite. Far be it from us to wish to penetrate the inscrutable counsels or the mysterious judgments of God— which are an abyss into which the human mind cannot penetrate. But it is the duty of our apostolic office to stir up your episcopal solicitude and vigilance, to make every effort possible to remove from the minds of men the opinion, as impious as it is fatal, which declares that man may find the way of salvation in any religion. Teach men with the greatest faith that outside the Apostolic ----

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that she is the only Ark of Salvation ; and that whoever shall not have entered into it will perish in the flood.

On the other hand it must be held with certainty that ignorance of the true religion, i f this ignorance be invincible, is not a sin in the eyes of God. But who will assume to himself the right to define the limits of such ignorance considering the extraordinary diversities of conditions and circumstances to be found in people, countries, and human affairs ? When we shall have put off the trammels of the body, we shall then see Godas He is and shall understand perfectly the admirable and indissoluble bonds which unite Divine Mercy with justice. But so long as we are on the earth, bent under the burden o f the mortal body, let us hold firmly the teaching of Catholic doctrine— that there is but one God, one faith, one baptism. To penetrate beyond this is not lawful. For the rest, let us pour out before God, as charity requires, incessant prayers that all the world may be converted to Christ; let us labour as far as in us lies for the salvation of all men. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the gifts of heavenly grace will not fail those who sincerely desire and pray for the help of this light. These truths shonld be profoundly engraved on the mind of the faithful, so that they may not allow themselves to be corrupted by the false doctrines, whose end is the propagation of indifference in the matter of religion, an indifference which we behold increasing and extending on all sides to the eternal ruin of souls.” S in gu la r is quadam December 9, 1854. (dayof the definition oflm .Com .).

I have dwelt at length on the necessity of belonging to the one true Church, because the stringency and the measure of this necessity is clearly the measure and the stringency of the charity which should urge and spur us on to obtain for our fellow countrymen the priceless blessing of the true faith. No charity is more popular with Englishmen than to man a life boat that shall brave the seas to rescue if om death the gallant fellows who have been shipwrecked on our coasts. Our aim is similar. It is to rescue those, who with no fault o f their own, are foundering in unsound ships or have been wrecked in the wild tempest of error which rages round us. It is needless now to urge that we are also pledged by every motive of gratitude, loyalty, and devotion to our Divine Redeemer, to do everything within our power to spread His Name and to extend throughout the earth the kingdom which is His Church.

ANOTHER MOTIVE.

But we are encouraged to labour for the conversion of England especially by another motive, as honourable to our countrymen as it is reasonable and persuasive in itself. The English speaking race has been endowed by God with certain natural virtues and qualities by aid of which they have built up the stupendous colonies of the British Empire. This race, so prolific by nature, so enterprising in character, so steady in colonising and filling up the vacant regions of the earth, so law abiding by instinct and discipline, so imperial in dominion and control, so sympathetic and reasonable in its dealing with human nature— in spite of atrocities which have disgraced and still disgrace our name. This English race has been able to settle down among all kinds of peoples abroad, and to govern them with the smallest appeal to physical strength and the largest trust in the efficiency of moral force and common sense. I f by the power of God’s right hand this imperial race should be enlisted in the service of the Church how wonderously its influence would tell in the propagation of the kingdom of Christ. St. Leo says that the mighty structure of the Roman Empire was raised up by God in order to become a medium for the spread of Christianity in the beginning. And there is no reason why God may not use, in like manner, i f it should so please Him in these latter days of the world, the great British Empire for something nobler than the spreading of commerce and worldly power— for nothing less than the spreading of His name, of the extension of the kingdom of His Church and the salvation of the world.

I hear some one whisper : You are dreaming, you are raving, to talk of the conversion of England is childish babble. You are not two millions out of millions of the population. You lose thousands of your poor through the workhouse system and proselytism for hundreds you gain in the upper classes. You misunderstand the English race, you misread their strong Protestant character i f you expect their conversion to Catholicism.

To this I rep ly : Compare the attitude of England during the last 300 years towards the Catholic Church with her attitude to-day. For 300 years Catholics were socially and civilly proscribed. They lived, or rather groaned, under all manner of disabilities. It was a crime to profess the Catholic religion, to hear Mass, to harbour a priest,